Stress and coping among stable-satisfied, stable-distressed and separated/divorced Swiss couples

Abstract

This article presents a 5-year prospective longitudinal study exploring the effects of stress and individual and dyadic coping on relationship stability among couples in Switzerland. Stress and coping variables assessed at the beginning of the study (tl) were used as predictors for the relationship status five years later (i.e., stable-satisfied; stable-distressed; separated/divorced). At the time of first measurement, all three groups differed significantly in their stress and individual and dyadic coping profiles. On average, the stable-satisfied couples were characterized by a lower level of stress, practiced less dysfunctional individual coping strategies, and relied more frequently on interpersonal (dyadic) coping when dealing with stress. At the end of the five-year period, it was possible to classify couples with 62.1% accuracy into one of three groups-stable-satisfied, stable-distressed, or separated/divorced. On the basis of the predictor variables, 73.3% of the couples could be correctly classified as being either stable or unstable.

This article presents a 5-year prospective longitudinal study exploring the effects of stress and individual and dyadic coping on relationship stability among couples in Switzerland. Stress and coping variables assessed at the beginning of the study (tl) were used as predictors for the relationship status five years later (i.e., stable-satisfied; stable-distressed; separated/divorced). At the time of first measurement, all three groups differed significantly in their stress and individual and dyadic coping profiles. On average, the stable-satisfied couples were characterized by a lower level of stress, practiced less dysfunctional individual coping strategies, and relied more frequently on interpersonal (dyadic) coping when dealing with stress. At the end of the five-year period, it was possible to classify couples with 62.1% accuracy into one of three groups-stable-satisfied, stable-distressed, or separated/divorced. On the basis of the predictor variables, 73.3% of the couples could be correctly classified as being either stable or unstable.

Download

TrendTerms

TrendTerms displays relevant terms of the abstract of this publication and related documents on a map. The terms and their relations were extracted from ZORA using word statistics. Their timelines are taken from ZORA as well. The bubble size of a term is proportional to the number of documents where the term occurs. Red, orange, yellow and green colors are used for terms that occur in the current document; red indicates high interlinkedness of a term with other terms, orange, yellow and green decreasing interlinkedness. Blue is used for terms that have a relation with the terms in this document, but occur in other documents.
You can navigate and zoom the map. Mouse-hovering a term displays its timeline, clicking it yields the associated documents.